Jewish author honored for book on friendship with pope

From Philadephia.com:

Several Roman Catholic Church leaders gathered for ceremonies to honor a Jewish author’s friendship with the late Pope John Paul II and her ability to touch other’s lives.
Lena Allen-Shore, of Philadelphia, an adjunct professor at Gratz College, began a close acquaintance with the pope when he responded to a letter she wrote in 1979, weeks after his election as the first Polish pope. They met several times, and she wrote “Building Bridges,” about their childhoods outside Krakow, Poland, and their different paths, which did not cross until old age.
“She entered and survived the Holocaust,” Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore told a gathering at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., marking the release of the third edition of “Building Bridges.” Keeler recalled how Allen-Shore masqueraded as a Catholic in her native Poland during World War II, vowing to devote herself to “building bridges” if she survived.
Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal representative to the United States, described John Paul’s account of childhood in Poland. “He said that when he was 15, he saw a great number of his Jewish friends disappearing” at the hands of the Nazis, “and he said, ‘I could do nothing. But now I can do something,’” Sambi said.
The new edition of “Building Bridges” includes a note John Paul wrote when the first edition was published, saying, “Thank you for seeing deep into my thoughts and understanding the intentions guiding my actions,” and praising Allen-Shore for writing “with heart.”

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

From Vultus Christi:

The gates forbiddenbecame the open portal,the lover’s embrace,the safeway, the only way, for no one comes to the Father (cf. Jn 14:6)except through this door’s thresholdof given-flesh and outpoured-blood.Here David’s song reveals the mystery:the house become a heart,the heart become a house.“It was there that Your people found a home,prepared in Your goodness, O God, for the poor” (Ps 67:11).
“Go out quickly to the streetsand lanes of the city,and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame” (Lk 14:21).“Go out to the highways and hedges,and compel people to come in” (Lk 14:23)that my house, my heart, may be filled.“The lost I will seek out,the strayed I will bring back,the injured I will bind up,the sick I will heal” (Ez 34:16).
Cross the threshold by night with faith’s unseen feet;with hope a lamp for your steps,enter by desire;dwell therein by love,and with John the beloved and those of his lineage“have power to comprehendwhat is the breadth and lengthand height and depth,and know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledgeto be filled with all the fullness of God” (cf. Eph 3:18-19).
The pierced Heartis Love’s last proof.“For while we were still weak,while we were yet sinners” (cf. Rom 5:6, 8),the door was opened in Love’s side.Plunge then, fearless, into the tide of water and of blood.Wash your soul’s disfigured facein the torrent of purity that to the image restores likeness,giving loveliness to the unlovely,There every bruise is bathed in love;there, every old, unsightly thingmade fresh, and new.This is love’s reparation,for only love can repair what Love has made.“Behold,” Love says, “I make all things new” (Rev 21:5).
Love’s joy is the one sheepsought and found and prized above all others“on a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Ez 34:12),Love’s joy is Love’s Heartopened for the sake of all, inhabited by the foolish to shame the wise,and by the weak to shame the strong (cf. 1 Cor 1:27).Love chose “what is low and despised in the world,even things that are not” (1 Cor 1:28)and in these is the mercy of His Heart displayed.
Others come knocking, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us”but their greatness, their shining certitudes,not their sins, prevent their entering in.“Truly, I say to you, I do not know you” (Mt 25:12)who have not known my Heart of mercy,who have not needed my repairing,nor known nor believed in love (cf. 1 Jn 4:16).
Only this one thing does Love ask:that, “out of the depths” (Ps 129:1), we believe in Love,and, preserved by Love,never despair of Mercy’s Heart.These are “thoughts of His Heart to all generations” (Ps 32:11).Come, then, to the water that washes every impurityand quenches every thirst. Come, be repaired, restored in the Blood.If you would be delivered from death, come (cf. Ps 32:19).If you would be fed in famine, come (cf. Ps 32:19).If you would be loved, come.

Ruth Graham Dies

From The Washington Post:

Ruth Bell Graham, who pursued a vigorous if reclusive Christian ministry for six decades in the shadow of her famous husband, the Rev. Billy Graham, died June 14 at her home near Montreat, N.C. She was 87.

Mrs. Graham had been bedridden for two years and in recent days had suffered complications from pneumonia.

The Decline of the Sabbath

Less praying, more working and playing.

From the Wall Street Journal:

For many Americans, Sunday is unlike any other day of the week. They spend its luxurious hours curled up in bed with the paper, meeting friends for brunch, working off hangovers, watching golf, running errands and preparing themselves for the workweek ahead. But Sunday is also, for many, the Sabbath–a special day for religious reasons. Not that you would notice.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” we are told in Exodus. Of all the gifts Jews gave the world, that of a weekly day of rest is certainly one to be cherished. And yet the Sabbath is now marked more by its neglect than its keeping. Or so says Christopher Ringwald in his new book “A Day Apart.”

Mr. Ringwald notes that in the late 18th century, states banned entertainment, hunting or unnecessary travel on Sundays. The Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s spread Sabbath-keeping to the frontiers. Church membership doubled, Sunday schools proliferated and long sermons dominated the morning. It was unthinkable that the general store would remain open on the Sabbath. “Nothing strikes a foreigner on his arrival in America more forcibly than the regard paid to the Sabbath,” Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1840. “Not only have all ceased to work, but they appear to have ceased to exist.” The so-called blue laws that were a part of American culture–closing down bars and preventing the sale of liquor on Sunday–were commonplace well into the 20th century.

But the Sabbath today is at odds with commercial culture. To generalize shamelessly from personal experience: My brother-in-law, who manages a national retail store in Colorado, works on Sundays, following church. He was shocked recently to find out he is now required to open the store on Easter Sunday. Easter used to be the one Sunday each year when retail stores closed. No longer.

The Moral Implications of Ecology

Meeting between former Vice President Al Gore and Patriarch Bartholomew in Turkey. From Asia News Italy:

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople was also present at the conference. He was the first religious leader to have initiated since 1991 various events to promote environmental protection. This role was underlined by Gore, who made a personal visit to the Phanar to speak with Bartholomew whom he described as “the green patriarch” thanking him for his example to Christians and the world as a whole.

Gore then quote the Patriarch, saying “the imposition of modern society which is totally disinterested in human impact on the environment not only impedes sustainable development it is also un just”. (NT)

Moscow Patriarch, Pope may Meet Next Year

From Catholic News:

Holy See spokesman on ecumenical issues, Cardinal Walter Kasper, says that there is hope that Pope Benedict may meet Moscow Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II in what would be a groundbreaking meeting.

The International Herald Tribune reports that the meeting could take place within a year according to Cardinal Kasper.

Latest Motu Proprio Date

From the Italian Petrus, Rorate Caeli gives us the translation:

The Papal “Motu Proprio” for the liberalization of the Latin Mass according to the Tridentine rite of Saint Pius V is ready, is about to be translated into several languages and will be published right before the departure of Benedict XVI for the summer vacation. [Rorate note: The Pope's early vacation this summer will be spent in a small villa owned by the Diocese of Treviso, in the tiny hamlet of Lorenzago di Cadore, Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region, in the July 9-27 period.]

For everyone who will be confused endlessly by this, Amy has a Motu Proprio Tip Sheet.